It didn't take long for Laraque and Brashear to drop the gloves.Solid fight.

Nice

A little bit after that, Ruutu went to the box for holding the stick, a penalty that we hope gets called the next time we play the Senators.

Late on the powerplay, Semin had a chance to explode in Conklin's face, but he tried to get it to Ovechkin who was too busy trying to figure out what to do when he doesn't have the puck.

The first period was flying, and then so was Jeff Taffe.He carried the puck down the left wing on a 3-on-2.He goes short side, top shelf.

1-0.

Steigerwald piledrives your enthusiasm after the goal by saying Taffe scoring a goal means the Pens are getting "third-dary scoring."

Conklin got the puck later and shimmied it over to Gonch.Gonch fails 10th-grade trigonometry, and the bounce off the back boards gives Brashear an easy goal in front of the net.

Picture: Some Caps fans celebrate the big goal.1-1.

We have a pet peeve:Whenever someone says a stat like "Fleury is 4-1-2 lifetime against the Buffalo Sabres, so we should expect a solid performance from him tonight."

Errey said something like that when he said the Capitals and Pens' old Patrick Division rivalry is alive and well.Whatever. Stupid.

MAF's hypothetical two wins against Buffalo two years ago means we can assume he'll have a good game against this year's Sabres?

Whatev.Colby Armstrong scores a Rangers "throw it at the net, F it" goal.

2-1.

Goalie Brent Johnson didn't feel like playing. So he quits.And the visitor's dressing room door open, and out comes the best goalie in Penguins history.

Oli The Joke

We weren't there, but it sounded like a "Olie" chant broke out.Good tmes.

And, holy balls, we ranted above about those lifetime stats crap, and then Steiggy talks about Kolzig's career numbers against the Pens and how it may be relevant in this game against the 2007 Penguins.

Ovechkin heads to the penalty box late in the period when he hears that a naked man is in there.

But it is just Pensblog Charlie.

He grudgingly heads to the locker room as his penalty carries over into the second period.

Not only was Ovechkin treated with class by the Pens faithful, but so were Johnson and Semin after getting hurt - both drew rounds of applause as they got up from the ice. Compare that to Caps fans who cheered in Oct. when Sid took a nasty spill behind the net that could have resulted in injury.

Now, if only the rest of the crowd would actually follow the lead of those of us who start cheers, we'd be getting somewhere.

Letang deserves a shout-out for his defensive play. At least three times right in front of me he laid solid checks using smart body positioning to gain puck possession. He may not throw huge hits, but he throws smart, solid ones that prevent scoring chances.

that OT was like, the greatest thing in my life as a former caps fan turned pens fan.... i will never forget gonch bobbling the puck as he closed in on heddy in 01, and straka stole the puck from him and scored in OT to knock the caps out. oh and look! now gonch has um. some sort of fucked up twisted revenge in a ay that only gonch could! :-D

i love you guys like a fat kid loves cake. and apparently the caps bloggers are starting to talk shit about y'all and about steiggy and errey. douchebags.

P.S. - Flyers fans were booing crosby when the VS. commercial for the all star game came on. They got all excited because the commercial did a 44 second piece on danny briere and then the next two minutes talked about players like crosby, le cavlier, and luongo and the anti crosby boo birds broke louder than anyone cheering that night against the leafs.

Was that Fleury that they showed in a snippet during the game doing skating drills on the ice? I was watching the game from the shower and couldn't tell. I just realized how weird that sounds now that I typed it.

And it was nice to see that right after Ovechkin through his check (and elbow) into Letang, he got injured. It was a bitch move in the open ice, and it was really out of line that he lead with his elbow right at Letang's head.

Jesus...CHRIST. Enough already! If Sid had gotten hurt back in October I guarantee you people wouldn't have been cheering - they would have given him the same applause when he got up as Semin and Johnson did in the Igloo. That doesn't make you guys any classier - all fans applaud when an injured party gets up, no matter what the team or the sport.

Crosby wasn't hurt and it was a fucking hilarious spill so why not cheer? You guys would do the same if Ovechkin fell, don't even pretend you wouldn't.

And by the way, the same % of fans who boo Crosby in Verizon Center boo Ovechkin in Mellon Arena. It's a minority in either place - personally I prefer to reserve my booing for Jagr, as any good Caps fan would. Can we just agree that every fanbase has an element of douchebag in them that doesn't appreciate pure talent and move on?

Caps fans are no more classless than Pens fans...let it go. You won the game, you've swept like 348570987 straight - can't that be enough?

The arena was as loud as I can recall after sydors and gonchars goals. My ears were ringing in the car on the way home like I was at a Geen Day concert. Discovered this site a month ago. The satire is first freakin rate and makes my batteries feel juiced as a Rutu hit on Semin.

ok anonymous caps fan, i don't usually leave any kind of comments, but you're starting to make me angry.

i've been to caps/pens games at both mellon and verizon, and i can tell you for a fact that caps fans boo crosby at a greater percentage and way louder than any pens fans have ever booed ovechkin. i've also attended caps/rangers games at verizon, and the boos i hear for jagr are just as loud as the ones i hear for sidney crosby.

i'm not saying that any fans are classless here, these are things that make the games fun and get us riled up about our team, but just be honest with yourself.

classless? yes fans in DC, the ones that have all their teeth and jobs. we boo sidney because he is the most overhyped player in sports. best player in the league? he's not even the best player on his own team.

hope you had a fun run last year because it's over. you made an awful trade for hossa and that got you nothing except a sweet patch on your jersey and now you have sewn up your lines with satan and fedotenko.

you'll need to remember games like those because starting this season your going to hate playing the Caps.